Customer Reviews

Ironman's Ultimate Guide to Natural Bodybuilding

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I bought this book a few weeks ago and have gone through the majority of it already. I was looking for something that was more in line with how I train, that is without drugs.

I'm not even remotely a competitive bodybuilder and bodybuilding training is something I do in addition to doing other physical disciplines like Pilates and Yoga (which I do every day including the days I hit the weights), so my focus is on building strength and some mass, but health is the most important bottom line for me so using any types of bodybuilding drugs isn't even something I'd consider. I think the bodybuilders that use drugs are making a mockery of what bodybuilding should be, that is it should be a reflection of a healthy lifestyle rather than a bunch of "buffed up" and "Juiced up" guys who "look" fit and healthy when in truth they are poisoning themselves with all sorts of illegal and life threatening substances.

Anyway, regarding the book:)

The good point is that there is a lot of food for thought on training without the use of extreme drugs. There are very interesting articles about trying to induce the body to use it's natural resources to create muscle mass by triggering it through various means. I also enjoyed some of the chapters that featured various "natural" bodybuilders. Whether they are completely natural or not, these guys still look human compared to the freaks out there (in a large part thanks to the IFBB whimping out and failing to test bodybuilders all these years not to mention all the press given to the juicers)

The less good point is the constant mention of various means of "supplements" which may not be as extreme as some the chemical substances out there, but these still seem a far cry from what I consider to be truly natural bodybuilding.

To me, true natural bodybuilding should focus of course on training and definitely on nutrition, including supplements. However, the types of supplements that I would consider really natural would still be very much food based. Things like soy protein, whey proteins etc. I don't know enough about creatine to know if that should be in the same category as whey and soy. Of course vitamins and minerals would fit into this category.

But so many of the things mentioned such as "cort block" and the like seem to be in an in between realm between what I consider natural and the types of insane staks many of the modern bodybuilders are obviously on. For anyone to think those IFBB bodybuilders aren't taking loads of drugs is an insult to anyone who has a clue about what a body can naturally look like.

Still, all that being said, I'm glad I purchased this Ironman book because at least most of the guys in the book do look considerably more human than the guys who are obviously juicing and that was a relief.

Also, I think the fact that natural bodybuilders have to learn not to overtrain is a critical point that I wish I learned many years ago back in my late twenties/early thirties when I was definitely pushing myself into an overtraining zone. Back then I was reading articles and books that had routines that really only are effective if you are using drugs. A natural bodybuilder couldn't recover using those programs and therefore overtraining was inevitable. Of course they never mentioned the fact that drugs were a pre-requisite for those programs.

I am a lot wiser thanks to books like this one and I'm not beating myself up to the point where I can't recover. Plus at 46 years old, I need to be especially careful about letting my body recover after training.

So, if you're looking for a book that is a welcome relief compared to much of what is out there, yet one that still touches upon the many new supplements being used by what are considered natural bodybuilders, then you might really find this book useful.

I would have thought that "Natural Bodybuilding" means bodybuilding without chemicals, including exotic supplements. But various participants in this book describe substantial supplement routines, including one fellow who says he took (at date of writing) androstenedione and a staggering 453 grams of protein daily(!!!). Another contributor describes Cort-Bloc; yet another talks about taking effervescent creatine, insulin mimickers, androgen precursors, HMB, etc. This is "Natural"???

Too much of the bodybuilding industry rides on profits made from pitching exotic substances whose long-term effects on human beings is unknown. The hard reality is that truly natural bodybuilding will not make you look like the full-time fitness models (who always look vaguely ill to me), unless you have incredible genetic gifts.

Save your money.

When I read the title I thought that this "Guide to natural bodybuilding" would have different recipies and advice on nutrition only. The vast majority of information in this book are about suppluments that are not steroids. This does not make them natural by any means, they have still side effects, and for some of them there is no research done on how they affect the human body. Still the authors believe that this is natural!!! (By the way bodybuilding magazines are making huge profits promoting these suppluments, that don't work). My sugestion is that you must look somewere else for answers; this book is waste of time and money.

Not a bad book on natural bodybuilding but if you have read Ironman magazine this book is really nothing new. And it contains a lot of pictures of bodybuilders that are oviously not natural.

I take exception with the claim that: "Continuously published since 1936, Ironman is the dean of bodybuilding magazines. It has been showcasing every major bodybuilder, training technique, scientific advance, as well as other aspects of the iron game, longer than any other bodybuilding magazine."

That statement would be correct if the writer was referring to the old "Iron Man" magazine, edited by Perry and Mabel Rader, from Nebraska. It was a tremedous resource for accurate and helpful training advice, without the Hoffman/Weider bias. It introduced the writings of Arthur Jones and other notables, as well as the supplements of Rheo Blair. However, for whatever reason (probably the lack of advertising) it went under. The new Iron Man magazine, from which this book usurps it's name, is no more connected to the orginal, than the resurrected Muscular Development is to the old York publication. They appear to be more showcases for steroid/hormone users; as well as supplement and equipment catalogs, than sources of helpful information.

I would be more interested in a reprint of Vince Gironda's "Unleashing the Wild Physique," or Steve Reeves "Building the Classic Physique."

THIS BOOK HAD SOME VERY GOOD BASIC INFORMATION ON TRAINING, NUTRITION AND SUPPLEMENTATION. THE INFORMATION WAS VERY UP TO DATE. WHAT I ALSO PARTICULARLY LIKED ABOUT THE BOOK WAS ITS PROFILES OF SOME OF THE NATURAL BODYBUILDERS OF TEAM UNIVERSE. IT ALSO PROFILED SOME BODYBUILDERS WHO AVERAGE PEOPLE CAN RELATE TO. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR THE EXTREME IN BODYBUILDING WITH THE USE OF DRUGS OBVIOUS BUT UNSPOKEN,LOOK ELSEWHERE. BUT IF YOU ARE INTO BODYBUILDING NATURALLY THIS IS "THE BOOK" FOR YOU.